After a year preparation, our new CS104 (Nursing Informatics) course is being offered for first time in Winter 2012 with total around 310 students enrolled. The students are from the Saskatchewan Collaborative Bachelor of Science in Nursing (SCBScN) program offered jointly by the University of Regina and the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology (SIAST). The lead instructor is Dr. Lisa Fan, a faculty member in our department.

CS 104 focuses on the acquisition of informatics literacy and applications of information technology in the management of health information. It integrates computer science, nursing science and information science to manage and communicate data, information and knowledge in nursing practice.

Topics for the course are tailored to meet the future needs of the nursing professionals. The topics include: basic concepts of hardware (computers, networks, telecommunications) and software (spreadsheets, databases, web browsers), fundamentals of clinical electronic data systems and electronic medical records, issues related to security, confidentiality, and privacy of health information, library instruction on best practices in research information retrieval.

The course is being delivered with a combination of classroom lectures, online materials, and hands on lab activities. The online materials include activities such as reflection, quizzes, blogging, and guided inquiry of relevant web sites such as Canada Health Infoway, Saskatchewan Health, Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner, CIHI, and NurseONE.

The lab activities include some innovative ones. For example, the lab on handheld electronic medical devices (EMD) or mobile device is designed to provide an engaging, practical, hands-on approach for students to begin developing competence and confidence in the use of mobile technology and for students to demonstrate ways of using mobile technology to facilitate client-centered care at the point of care. As another example, the lab on Lippincott's DocuCare provides experience using an educational electronic health record that simulates commercial EHR programs. It is designed to introduce students to electronic health records and nursing documentation. The students will learn to execute their way through a basic case study utilizing the electronic health record functions.

The development of the new CS 104 has been and continues to be a collaborative process. Besides Dr. Fan, the following have made significant contributions: the Nursing faculty, the Department of Computer Science, instructional designers, librarians, the lab instructors, TAs, technicians from computing services at the UofR and Kelsey campus of SIAST, and the sessional instructors at Kelsey.